Leading Through Change. Insights from LIN’s Second Leadership Event
Leadership is easy to discuss when circumstances are stable. It becomes more revealing when the rules keep changing, expectations are rising and nobody has a complete answer.
That was the starting point for Living in Nyon’s second annual leadership event, Leading Through Change, held in early September. A mix of professionals, local community members and people attending for the first time came together to discuss how to lead when change has become a constant rather than an occasional disruption.
The event brought together four speakers with very different professional perspectives:
Guido Palazzo, Professor of Business Ethics at HEC Lausanne
Barbara Lax, CEO and Founder of Little Greenhouse
Paulien de Haes, former Deputy Head of Audit at the International Red Cross
Silvina Layani of Bee’z Consulting
The discussion was moderated by Eoghan O’Sullivan, Director of That Comms Guy, who kept the conversation moving with warmth, pace and plenty of room for the audience to get involved.
The moment the room went quiet
Some comments stay with you because they change the way you look at a familiar problem.
Guido Palazzo’s warning was one of them:
“The biggest compliance risk in an organisation isn’t the rogue employee. It’s the charismatic leader.”
Drawing on cases including Dieselgate, Boeing and Theranos, Guido explained how ordinary professionals can become part of harmful decisions when three conditions come together: fear, unrealistic goals and deliberately vague rules. The point was not that organisations are simply brought down by a few bad individuals. The bigger risk can lie in the systems around them, particularly when people feel unable to question decisions or raise concerns. His conclusion was more hopeful. Leaders can design better systems through clear rules, realistic goals and a culture where speaking up feels safe.
Trust starts with listening
Paulien de Haes identified honesty, integrity and transparency as the foundations of trust.
People are more likely to support change when they feel heard, understand the direction of travel and believe that the process is being handled properly. That sounds simple, but it becomes much harder when organisations are under pressure and decisions need to be made quickly.
Listening, in that context, is not a soft extra. It is part of how leaders build confidence in a decision and create the conditions for people to move forward with it.
Safety and autonomy need to exist together
Barbara Lax spoke about the balance between freedom and clarity.
People need room to take responsibility and make decisions, but they also need to understand what is expected of them. Too much control can prevent initiative. Too little direction can leave people uncertain and exposed. When circumstances become difficult, her advice was direct:
“Be optimistic and solution-focused rather than complaining and being scared.”
It was a reminder that leadership is also visible in the emotional tone a person brings into a difficult situation.
Nobody gets it right the first time
Silvina Layani encouraged leaders to keep learning, testing and adapting. Change rarely follows a neat plan. Leaders need to be willing to review what is working, recognise what is not and adjust without treating every change of direction as a failure.
The conversation also turned towards artificial intelligence and the pace at which technology is changing the workplace. Guido Palazzo stressed that innovation needs to be embedded carefully into the social fabric of an organisation, particularly as AI begins to affect how people work, make decisions and understand their roles. The question is not only what new technology can do. It is also how organisations choose to introduce it, who is involved in those decisions and what safeguards are in place.
The questions continued beyond the panel
Some of the strongest moments of the evening came from the audience.
Questions included:
What happens when your most charismatic leader is also your biggest compliance risk?
How does leadership change when today’s graduates are preparing for jobs that may no longer exist?
When change is relentless, do leaders need more answers or more compassion?
These questions carried into the apéro, where guests continued the conversation over food, drinks and the ideas the panel had raised. That was an important part of the evening. Leadership is not only something discussed from a stage. It is also shaped through conversations between people who are working through similar questions in different settings.
Capturing leadership, uncertainty and connection on film
An event can take months to organise and a single evening to pass. The room fills, conversations begin, speakers take the stage and, a few hours later, the evening is over. What remains are the photographs, the feedback forms and the memories of the people who were there.
For the second year running, Tulip Films filmed LIN’s leadership evening, capturing the atmosphere, ideas and conversations as they unfolded. A photograph can show us what an event looked like. Video can show us what it felt like: the pace of the discussion, the pause after a challenging question, the energy between speakers and the conversations that continued afterwards.
That mattered particularly for an evening focused on leadership in a changing world. The questions raised were not limited to the panel. They belonged to anyone trying to lead a team, make decisions under pressure or understand how AI and uncertainty are changing the way we work.
Professional event production allows the conversation to reach people who were not able to attend in person. It also gives the evening a life beyond the event itself, creating something that can be shared with future attendees, speakers, sponsors and partners.
Tulip Films’ approach reflects what we value about event video: professional production that still feels natural. The aim is not to create something overly staged, but to capture the people, ideas and atmosphere as they were: speakers connecting with the audience, moments of reflection, questions that shifted the conversation and the exchanges taking place around the room.
Smooth, well-composed footage, clear audio and a thoughtful edit help create a story rather than a collection of clips. The result is more than a record of the evening. It captures what the event was trying to create. Our second leadership evening now exists beyond the night itself. The video helps keep the questions around trust, responsibility, innovation and uncertainty in circulation.
What you told us
Thank you to everyone who completed a feedback form after the event.
The responses were thoughtful and encouraging:
95% of attendees said they would recommend the event to a friend
90% said the discussion fully met their expectations
Your comments will help shape next year’s edition.
Our Sponsors
An event like this depends on the support of a wider community. We were pleased to welcome several of our sponsors on the evening, as well as thanking A-one Business Park for hosting us and Tulip Films for capturing the event on film. We are grateful to all of our sponsors for supporting Living in Nyon as we continue bringing local news, stories and practical information to the community, while creating spaces where people can meet, exchange ideas and take part in conversations that matter.
You can learn more about the businesses and organisations behind LIN through our sponsor articles:
Albatross Read More >>
Numeriq Payroll Read More >>
A-one Business Park Read More >>
Tulip Films Read More >>
Kanadrinks Read More >>
Jonas Berlie, Swiss Life Read More >>
Thank you
The evening was a true community effort. Thank you to our volunteer organising team; Estee Madaschi, Helen von Dadelszen, Silvina Layani, Mandy Bronsil and Chance Newcombe Bilham, speakers and moderator, and everyone who came, asked questions, challenged ideas and stayed to connect afterwards. A special thank you also goes to the three volunteers who helped prepare and serve the apéro, making it possible for the evening to continue with such a welcoming atmosphere.
We are already looking forward to the third edition! Our next leadership event will take place on Wednesday 15 September 2027 so save the date! Keep an eye on the Living in Nyon newsletter for updates and the opportunity to vote on next year’s topic.
If you would like to help organise the event, suggest a speaker or topic, or share an idea, we would be pleased to hear from you.
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